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Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Tamil and issues

Tamil and issues

Chennai
is probably the only big city in India where educated natives refuse
to speak in their vernacular and where knowledge of English is so
overrated that they do not care for their vernacular anymore. I do not
see this behavior in people coming from Delhi, Calcutta, Hyderabad,
etc. The people coming from these cities speak their vernacular very
well, are passionate about it and also possess good English skills. It
is downright pathetic to see the attitude of the current generation in
Chennai which prides itself in its ignorance of the Tamil language.
Writer Jeymohan aptly remarked that other than fake "tamil
nationalism", the Dravida parties have not done any service to promote
the language for the past 50 years and as a result people are also
moving away from it.

Tamil is a language which if
not pronounced properly even in one syllable, will lead to absolutely
wrong and sometimes hilarious interpretations. Some examples :

1. If you ask somebody to bless, they better say "vaazh" (வாழ்). But most of them say vaal (வால்) which is tail.

2. One must use a vaaL (வாள்) for fighting and not vaal (வால்) - a tail - to fight.

4. Crab lives in a hole vaLai (வளை) and fish are caught by a net valai (வலை)

5. விளைநிலம் is arable land whereas விலைநிலம் is a land for sale

6. If you perform பலி (sacrifice), you may invite பழி (blame)

7. What can happen in a moment (கணம்) cannot be weighed (கனம்)
8. And I wrote this using the time (வேளை) I was idling at my job (வேலை) :)
So
it is really important to take time and learn this language the
cultural richness of which is no less than that of any other classical
language. What a great cultural loss it would be if the so called
headquarters of Tamil (Chennai) is unable to sustain this great
language !